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Topic: My Favorite Sauce Recipe (Read 10492 times)

This is my favorite sauce recipe. I've been using this and it's been working out great on my "pies".

I suggest this and this alone.

Alta Cucina canned whole peeled tomatoes.

Take them out of the can by hand. Remove seeds by hand.Squeeze out juice by hand.Put in blender and pulse a few times.It's gonna possibly a bit thick because you squeezed the juice out.Maybe put some juice back in depending on how thick it is and how thin you want.Pulse again a couple of times.Ladle on pizza and dress pizza.Now you are done.

I love Alta Cucina's but just can't deal with the size of the can. I can only get them in #10 cans and I hate freezing or refridgerating tomatoes. I do however used AC's exclusively for my pasta sauce aka "gravy", where I use the whole can all at once.

I like how the juice in the AC is not thin like most juice in whole tomato cans. It's a bit thicker.

I know what you mean about freezing or refrigerating them. But you know the price of a #10 can cost the same as a DOP San Marzano 28 ounce can so value wise the AC is better. I know SMs are the best but AC come very close so the price I have to go for the AC. Granted I never used DOP SM but I figure they are supposed to be the best.

I love how the AC I don't have to add any spices. Just right out of the can, pulse it a few times and put on pizza. I see on TV how in Italy when they make their Neapolitan pizzas they just use the tomatoes with no spices added except maybe adding some salt on top of the sauce after they ladle it on. If the tomato taste is good, really good then why add garlic, basil, oregano and all that?

I love Alta Cucina's but just can't deal with the size of the can. I can only get them in #10 cans and I hate freezing or refridgerating tomatoes. I do however used AC's exclusively for my pasta sauce aka "gravy", where I use the whole can all at once.

When you have used AC in the past for pizza what do you put in it? What spices? Do you just use the tomatoes as is like I do just crush them or do you add stuff to it?

If you don't mind telling me what is your recipe for "gravy" or pasta sauce?

I actually have never used them on a pizza, but I'm sure they would be excellent and I will at some time. I have a favorite Italian restaurant, and one night when we were the last people to leave, I asked our waiter what kind of tomatoes they used for their sauce, because as I said to him. "your sauce is excellent". Without hesitation he said Alta Cucina's. He probably didn't think I know what the hell AC's were or where to get them, but I already had a can sitting on the shelf in my garage. The next day I made a pot of sauce, I've been a fan ever since. As far as a recipe, I just wing it, I saute about 3-4 cloves of garlic in some olive oil, add the tomatoes, I like a little bit of oregano and basil, and I just bring the sauce to a gentle simmer and let at cook very minimally, probably around 15 minutes after it gets bubbly. I use the whole #10 can in a big dutch oven.

I actually have never used them on a pizza, but I'm sure they would be excellent and I will at some time. I have a favorite Italian restaurant, and one night when we were the last people to leave, I asked our waiter what kind of tomatoes they used for their sauce, because as I said to him. "your sauce is excellent". Without hesitation he said Alta Cucina's. He probably didn't think I know what the hell AC's were or where to get them, but I already had a can sitting on the shelf in my garage. The next day I made a pot of sauce, I've been a fan ever since. As far as a recipe, I just wing it, I saute about 3-4 cloves of garlic in some olive oil, add the tomatoes, I like a little bit of oregano and basil, and I just bring the sauce to a gentle simmer and let at cook very minimally, probably around 15 minutes after it gets bubbly. I use the whole #10 can in a big dutch oven.

Thanks for the info. Yeah I have a recipe I made up for pasta sauce that consisted of 28 OZ can of crushed and 28 OZ can of whole canned tomatoes of any brand and I have my herbs and spices I put in but I can imagine a whole #10 can of ACs would be even better. I'll do that sometime.

Do you crush or use the blender on the whole tomatoes before putting them in the pot or just throw them in as is?

I usually just throw them in as is, will kinda crush them some with a wooden spoon when they get heated up a little. If the sauce is still a little chunkier then I like I will sometimes hit them with the stick at the very end.

Your observation that the juice in the ACs is thicker than most reminds me of a question I've been meaning to ask. When you guys buy whole tomatoes, do they come in just the watery juice or with added tomato paste? The two brands I buy are the Cento non-DOP and the Simpsons. The Cento tomatoes are packed with basil and tomato paste while the Simpsons just have juice. Both have citric acid I believe. With the Centos, I use the entire can while but with the Simpsons I only use a small amount of juice along with the tomatoes. This difference can almost double the sauce yield I get from a Cento can. Is there a unanimously preferred packing fluid?

Pete, thank you for the info and link. I'm going to read the discussion. I really love these AC tomatoes. Do you like them too Pete?

James,

I don't have access to all of the Stanislaus products (I can get some of them at an Italian market in Dallas) but somewhere along the way I ended up with a can of the Alta Cucinas. I thought that they were very good but found them to be too salty to my palate, given that I am not a big user of salt and am more sensitive to it.

I use the same process (remove seeds, squeeze, blend) for Cento Certifieds. I add a little less than 1 tsp of kosher salt, about 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, and about 1/2 tsp of garlic powder to it when I puree it with my immersion blender. Let sit for a few hours before using... so good!

My intention was to keep my sauce simple and just go with the tomatoes because Alta Cucina are great. Also in Italy a lot of times they just go with the San Marzano and crush by hand and that's it, nothing else. Maybe sprinkle salt on them. Well as much as I love AC as is I decided to test the waters a bit.

I thought okay, I'll do this. I put in a blender about 8 of the whole tomatoes then put 4 TBS of the tomatoe juice from the can in. Add 2 crushed minced garlic cloes. 1/4 TSP of white sugar. 2 leaves of basil from my garden all chopped up. 4 or 5 small leaves of oregano from my garden. About a TSP of grated parmesan.

I kind of winged it so I'm not sure if those are the exact measurments but I have to tell you it was really good. I was surprised because I wanted the pure tomato taste but with those ingredients it was really good. You have to understand I always felt that parmesan doesn't belong in sauce but for kicks I tried it. Not sure if it would taste as good if I left out the parm but I put it in anyway.

I'll try to do this again and see how it taste to make sure it's not a fluke.

I left out salt because as Peter said it's salty. Salty enough at least so I didn't need to add anymore salt. I think the sugar counters any saltiness.

James

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scott123

I thought okay, I'll do this. I put in a blender about 8 of the whole tomatoes then put 4 TBS of the tomatoe juice from the can in. Add 2 crushed minced garlic cloes. 1/4 TSP of white sugar. 2 leaves of basil from my garden all chopped up. 4 or 5 small leaves of oregano from my garden. About a TSP of grated parmesan.

I use a little less ingredients than you do, and I don't blend anything other than a brief hand blend for the tomatoes, but this is pretty much my sauce.

Luigi's in San Diego add parm to their sauce. I don't think too many NY places add parm, but, I wouldn't really consider it inauthentic. Many places sprinkle parm on the pie, so there's not much different between sprinkling parm and adding it to the sauce.

I wish I didn't have to freeze my sauce and Grande East Coast Mozarella (I still get the shredded from PenMac), but it does make a huge difference if I put it in the 4, 6, or 8 Quart Foodsaver canisters to vacuum pack before freezing.

I'm hooked on the 10# Escalon Bunta + 6in1 recipe from here, but only 1/2 as much water. It may not be ideal, but to my inexperienced palate (& family/friends), it makes pizza light years better than what we could get locally in New London, CT. Still using Willard's 2Stone on my Weber grill which I switched over to the Natural Gas our home has coming in.

I love the 6-n-1's too. They are very well priced even with shipping and you can get smaller cans which i put with a touch of oil, oregeno, fennel seed, onion powder, garlic powder and fresh basil. only cooking is on the pie. fantastic.

Since you apparently have a good source for obtaining Stanislaus products, you might want to consider trying 7/11 ground tomatoes (if you haven't already). I think they are the same tomatoes as Alta Cucina, but they are processed pretty much how it sounds like you like them (with puree). So far when I've used 7/11 for NY style sauce, I've mixed 2 parts 7/11 with one part Full-Red pizza sauce, and added fresh basil, a little fresh garlic, and some water. (This was based on the NY style sauce recipe on the Stanislaus web site.) Tomorrow, though, when I make a bunch of pizzas for a party, I'm probably just gonna use 7/11 straight out of the can for the NY style pizzas. The Full-Red pizza sauce tastes really good straight out of the can--even better than the 7/11 straight out of the can--but once the pizza is baked, I don't think the Full-Red contributes a taste I want in a NY style sauce. (However, I've found Full-Red to be excellent for cracker style pizzas.)

I'd say I like 7/11 much better than 6 IN 1, though it's been a while since I tried 6 IN 1.

Disclaimer: Don't necessarily believe anything I say here. My brain ain't quite right anymore (unless it is). If I come off as rude or argumentative, that's probably not my intention. Rather, that's just me being honest, to myself and everyone else; partly because I don't have enough time left to BS either you or myself. If you are offended by anything I say, it's probably because you think lying to people (to be "polite") is a good idea. I don't.

Since you apparently have a good source for obtaining Stanislaus products, you might want to consider trying 7/11 ground tomatoes (if you haven't already). I think they are the same tomatoes as Alta Cucina, but they are processed pretty much how it sounds like you like them (with puree). So far when I've used 7/11 for NY style sauce, I've mixed 2 parts 7/11 with one part Full-Red pizza sauce, and added fresh basil, a little fresh garlic, and some water. (This was based on the NY style sauce recipe on the Stanislaus web site.) Tomorrow, though, when I make a bunch of pizzas for a party, I'm probably just gonna use 7/11 straight out of the can for the NY style pizzas. The Full-Red pizza sauce tastes really good straight out of the can--even better than the 7/11 straight out of the can--but once the pizza is baked, I don't think the Full-Red contributes a taste I want in a NY style sauce. (However, I've found Full-Red to be excellent for cracker style pizzas.)

I'd say I like 7/11 much better than 6 IN 1, though it's been a while since I tried 6 IN 1.

We use 7/11 with no other sauce or puree added. It has a great consistency as is IMO and the flavor has that tang that I grew up with back in NJ. I do add some grated romano, a bit of fresh crushed garlic, a bit of EVOO, and a bit of dried oregano. The full red is to thick for me and I don't like to add water to a sauce. It dillutes flavor. I was weened on NYC pizza. It is in my hardwiring. Today things get pretty dilluted due to the net. People that never spent much time, if any, living in the area of a certain style make it via videos and such. I am sure they are making really good pies but the art of the old school pizza man passing it down to the younger generation in the flesh is a dying thing. This is what really makes a pie shine IMO. I feel so lucky to have learned the old school way- just got lucky being born in the best food center in the USA and working in it Walter

This sauce didn't taste very good when I tried to clone Giordano's (due to the 35-minute bake), but it tasted awesome on the scrap dough "deep dish" pizza (23-minute bake). So I can't wait to find out how 7/11 straight out of the can performs on my 4-minute NY pizzas (baked in the grill) tomorrow.

Disclaimer: Don't necessarily believe anything I say here. My brain ain't quite right anymore (unless it is). If I come off as rude or argumentative, that's probably not my intention. Rather, that's just me being honest, to myself and everyone else; partly because I don't have enough time left to BS either you or myself. If you are offended by anything I say, it's probably because you think lying to people (to be "polite") is a good idea. I don't.

thanks redox. Ryan I bet you like the 7/11. Here is another one cooked by one of my students who is a savant with dough. She can't read or write, but can sure work dough and run our deck ovens. I get fresh basil from a local organic farmer. Walter

I have not used 7/11 tomatoes yet, but I do see them often here in NJ. In my 1st walk through Restaurant Depot, I noticed they carry 6 in 1(which I never had either). So, those of you who had both, which do you prefer? As of this moment, I'm a Sclafani user

I have not used 7/11 tomatoes yet, but I do see them often here in NJ. In my 1st walk through Restaurant Depot, I noticed they carry 6 in 1(which I never had either). So, those of you who had both, which do you prefer? As of this moment, I'm a Sclafani user

7/11 all the way. They have the tang that I grew up with in NJ. Walter